And With This, We're Even
by LeonaWriter
Summary: Somehow, Kiryu would later note, most of their kisses seemed to have happened by accident up to a point. But that was them all over - unplanned, and unexpected.


(**one**)

Their first kiss was sloppy and inexperienced. Neither of them had tried anything like this before, so they were both making it up as they went along. It was passionate, but at the same time it was also something secret, something guilty.

They both knew it wouldn't last. They'd end up either dead or with the world burning around them, and Carly with someone else.

In that moment, though, neither of them cared – or maybe, they just cared too much, and wanted to forget the world in the other's lips, and the feel of another person who felt the same thing.

There was none of her usual shyness or indecision – she'd decided what she wanted and she'd gone for it, free of regrets.

They both had their reasons, and neither they nor their reasons pure. Not anymore.

(**two**)

He could have just left her there, lying in the hospital asleep. He wasn't sure why he'd woken up before she had – maybe it was something medical. He wasn't feeling completely up to his full strength yet himself after all, although the doctors had told him he should get back to normal if he let himself rest up and eat and drink properly.

He had two main problems with that – the first being that his appetite seemed to be doing an impression of a rollercoaster with its ups and downs. The second was that he often simply couldn't bring himself to care.

But he'd been cleared to leave, at any rate. Which was more than _her_.

He found himself hesitating outside her room.

It wasn't as though he was deaf and blind – he knew damn well that Jack had been to see her pretty much every day. He'd just made no show of the fact that he knew. He knew that she and Jack were something more than he'd ever get –

And he was fine with that. She deserved more, she really did.

But he couldn't help but plant a soft kiss on her forehead before he left.

"Take care of yourself," he'd said awkwardly, not sure how to speak to someone who for all he knew couldn't even hear him, and wouldn't remember the words. "Hey, you never know – we might meet again."

He had miles to go before that could happen, though – miles, and miles to go before he could rest.

(**three**)

The third time was a surprise, and for not just one but both of them.

It was Nico's birthday, and what used to be the Ramon group hacienda had been turned into a party venue for the day. Cake had been baked, along with other confectionaries and delicacies, both that she liked and that she knew that others would. Guests had been invited. Games had been arranged.

They'd burst the piñata some time ago. Faces had been painted. Presents had been passed around, and Kiryu himself had needed to tie his hair back in order to make sure it wouldn't get in his face.

Carly currently had a blindfold on. She'd also been spun around until she was dizzy, and sent on her way to catch someone out, so that they'd be the next in the centre.

Her steps were staggered, uncertain, and at one point she almost fell down but caught herself – another, she would have, but he caught her arm just in time amid the laughter.

"Eh?"

He hadn't expected her to latch onto him.

"Is this~?"

Her hands had gone from his arms to his face, and he was stock still, frozen from not knowing what to do and caught between glancing for help and glaring at everyone – mainly Crow and West – who happened to be laughing at the situation he'd found himself in.

"Jack!"

_What?!_

But then his mouth was being covered by hers and he was having flashbacks and his body wanted to respond in ways that it just plain couldn't and _shouldn't_, and he was flailing, hands moving but not knowing what to do.

"Oi, Carly, I'm _over here."_

She left him completely red-faced.

It had been completely different to what he'd remembered – but a _good_ different.

Even so, the fact that she had confused him for Jack in the first place bugged him enough to find his old teammate after the party had died down, and ask what that was all about.

"The last I knew," he found himself saying quietly but forcefully, "she wanted to rule hell with you, and you saved her from that. I thought you were going to stick by her after that. So how did she mistake my face for _yours?"_

If they were together, she would have known. Just as even now, he still remembered, despite himself, the contours of her face from the one and only time they'd kissed.

Jack had looked away, and Kiryu hadn't been able to tell if it was out of shame, or an unwillingness to shoulder the burden and the responsibility.

"She couldn't remember anything about me. I tried to stick with her, but then there was the WRGP, and it got dangerous – you remember that. So I thought, it'd be better if she wasn't involved in anything that might get her killed again because of me."

"But something happened."

"More like everything did! We drifted away, Kiryu. That's all."

(**four**)

It had started with talking, and that was it. Talking to relieve the awkwardness of a simple game of blind man's bluff. Talking to get to know one another again.

Their very first meeting was never brought up. It was referred to, it was mentioned in passing, but never was it strayed onto for more than that.

Maybe it would have gone differently if they hadn't felt so at ease, if there hadn't been the feeling that these wine bottles had been opened the other day, so they might as well finish them, right? It was just a drink between friends, after all.

He offered to see her back to the room she was staying in, playing the gentleman as though he knew more about the role than he'd gathered from old books he'd never had the patience to read all the way through.

She'd played along, though, with a giggle that was far, far too infectious.

And at the door, instead of kissing her hand – which was what his brain was telling him was the right thing to do, the next cue in the story – he found his hands reaching for the sides of her face, and gently planting a kiss on her mouth.

It wasn't a fairy tale thing. It was sloppy, it was soft, it was drunken and his head was buzzing with alcohol and no small amount of adrenaline as he came away.

"There," he still remembered himself saying days later, wishing he couldn't remember his own foolishness. "Now I'm satisfied we're even."

(**five**)

They didn't talk for ages afterwards. Nico and West wondered why he didn't talk about it much, and why they didn't talk to the nice lady.

He went red in the face often enough when they asked that after a while, they stopped asking, and started giggling.

In fact, the next time they met was at Yuusei's wedding – Carly had been appointed reporter in residence, a perfect excuse not to invite the rest of the world's press over while at the same time limiting the guests to only those they actually knew.

Since Yuusei didn't really much care for tradition either way and Aki had spent some time abroad in Germany for her doctorate, they'd gone with a Western wedding, white dress, bouquet and all.

Carly had caught it. He'd been standing right behind her, and when she'd bounced up and down in delight, she'd hugged those nearest – and then thrown her arms around _him_.

He hadn't been expecting it, and had nearly landed both of them on the grass, but had righted just in time.

Just in time for her to have slipped a little.

Cheers went up from the surrounding crowds, along with whooping noises and wolf whistles.

It was only then that he realised that, yet again, their mouths had met. That, yet again, it was in public. But instead of just a handful of people, this time it was several hundred.

But, he realised, as she relaxed and eased into the unexpected kiss, it could have been worse.

He righted them, still holding on, not letting go. He didn't think he _would_ let go, this time. He didn't think he'd be satisfied with just calling it 'even', either.

...

AN: A few days ago I said I'd do some 'five kisses' fics, dedicating one fic to each pairing I thought of that I'm comfortable writing. This was the first to get done, and I'm surprised with how pleased I am with how it turned out, creating an entire story out of it.


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